76ers burnt by Heat at home, 108-101

Following Tuesday night’s win against the Dallas Mavericks, the Sixers came in tonight looking to start another win streak and head into a crucial part of the season.

The Sixers were without Joel Embiid and Andre Drummond, along with Caleb Martin and KJ Martin who are no longer on the roster. The Heat were without Jimmy Butler as he was on suspension and ended up getting traded to Golden State during the game.

Here are a few takeaways from tonight’s loss which moves them to 20-30 on the season, as well as a breakdown of the Martin trade from earlier Wednesday. 

Enter the Spo-zone

It seems every time the Sixers play Miami they see a zone defense for at least a quarter, and tonight they got a healthy serving of it. Erik Spoelstra utilized a zone as the primary defense for the middle two quarters and then threw it out a couple of times in the final quarter. Tonight he was bouncing between a 2-3 and 3-2 zone, and the main factor for the switch was Nikola Jovic. With Jovic out there, they ran a 3-2 zone due to Jovic’s ability to stick with wings out on the arc. 

With Embiid and Drummond absent, the Sixers really only had one way to attack the zone and that was to try and shoot through it. The key to breaking a zone is to penetrate it and make it collapse. When you do not have any inside presence you must try to shoot out of it. Unfortunately, the Sixers were ice cold, going 12-40 (30%) from three. To their credit, they were actually getting decent looks often. They were doing a good job at distracting the top 2 in the 2-3 and getting open wing shots, they just weren’t falling. Tyrese Maxey’s shot was way off tonight as he shot 3-11 from three. Paul George looked buried in the zone, going 3-6 from three which would mark his only field goal of the game, he was not able to get inside. 

In an effort to combat the zone, Nick Nurse tried Adem Bona, who gave a solid 18 minutes off the bench. Bona posted 11 points on 4-5 from the field and grabbed 5 boards. With this stat line, it’s a little head-scratching why he didn’t get a little more run, but it ultimately came down to the other end of the floor where Bona was almost a non-factor on the glass. They also tried attacking the zone by simply throwing their bodies at it. Oubre and Maxey took a bit of initiative and tried to attack the rim as often as possible. This strategy had its moments, and Oubre made some tough shots scoring 15 points on 16 shots. 

Two Tales of the Same Defense 

If you said the Sixers had a great defensive night, you’d be right. If you said they didn’t show up, you’d be right. Starting with the positive, they forced many mistakes out of this Miami team. The Heat had 22 total turnovers tonight which is a massive number for any Spoelstra team. This season the Heat are 8th in turnovers averaging just 13.7 per game. They swiped away 14 steals, and it wall thanks to their wings. They did a great job at overwhelming the Heat and getting them into bad situations. This was especially true for Bam Adebayo who spent a lot of time on the arc and this led to him coughing up the ball 7 times.

On the other hand, the Sixers got murdered on the glass. They allowed 54 rebounds tonight. These rebounds allowed the Heat to get out in transition quickly and let them set up their offense in a way that got them open threes. As a team, they shot 42.1% from three and they got exceptional games from Tyler Herro and Jovic. Herro scored 30 points while draining 5 threes, and Jovic was almost perfect for the game scoring 23 points and going 8-9 from the field. Overall, with any down-low presence, the Sixers were unable to get any second-chance points or at least make it tough on the Heat down-low. 

KJ Martin Trade

Another year, another salary dump to the Pistons. KJ Martin joins Tobias Harris and Paul Reed in Detroit, and along with Martin goes two second-round picks. In return for nothing. Well, not nothing, the Sixers are now below the Luxury Tax.

Now this gets poo-pooed by Sixers fans, and frustration is understandable, but this is just the reality of the two-apron CBA. Martin was on a balloon deal which would have really handicapped the Sixers if they had to pay his salary next year. As for trades, this move is probably the last move the Sixers will make before the deadline.

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